MAKING LIBERTY SMILE AGAIN – Six members of AmeriCorps Cape Cod were dispatched to help clean up Liberty and Ellis islands with a 13-member response team from the National Seashore.

Leave Wellfleet for New York

Just as she had done so many times before, the Statue of Liberty extended a welcoming hand to workers from a (somewhat) distant land, but the work to be done was a little closer to home.

Six members of AmeriCorps Cape Cod arrived at Liberty and Ellis islands earlier this month to help the National Park Service clean up the "wretched refuse" left behind by Superstorm Sandy. They were part of the 13-member response team dispatched by the National Seashore.

Reporting to the County Commissioners Nov. 14, available for viewing through barnstablecounty.org, AmeriCorps members talked about how they helped in the recovery and, closer to home, at the county's multi-agency coordination center, or MACC.

AmeriCorps member Matt Spears, who is part of the new fire corps initiative at the Seashore, said that the group's deployment to Staten Island made them eyewitnesses to what they were seeing on the news.

He said they witnessed long lines at gas stations on the way down, and that after Greenwich, Conn., there was no diesel fuel to be found.

"A lot of the buildings on Liberty island were destroyed and will need rebuilding," Spears said.

Spears thought the crew would be helping people in the communities and neighborhoods struggling after the storm. When he learned that it would be with the National Park Service, "It almost became more important," Spears said. "Not only do the people of New York see these two icons, but the people of the whole world view these icons as America."

"We put our stamp on those two islands," Spears said. He added that while there was still much work to be done in the recovery, the Cape team members "were the ones who started it."

The AmeriCorps volunteers stayed at Fort Wadsworth, Staten Island, working 12-to-16-hour days clearing debris, but getting hot meals and hot showers. Spears estimated that in the week on the islands, eight 30-yard dumpsters were filled with storm debris.

The Liberty and Ellis islands are managed by the National Park Service, which made the request for assistance to the National Seashore. Ellis Island remains closed until further notice as a result of damage from the storm, according to NPS.gov. The parks service said that there is significant building damage to the Ferry building and infrastructure, but the museum collection in the Immigration building experienced little damage.

Closer to home, AmeriCorps member Jason Ross, who is working directly with the county's Regional Emergency Planning Committee, spent time at the MACC (Multi-Agency Coordination Center) on the Massachusetts Military Reservation during the storm. Ross said that he worked with Sean O'Brien, the county's emergency response planning coordinator.

O'Brien himself would be pressed into service as part of the Barnstable County Incident Management Team (see related).